


Here At The End

by Aedyn



Series: The Martian - Love & Angst in Space [3]
Category: The Martian (2015)
Genre: Angst, Babies, Drama, F/M, Fluff, Romance, Series
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-10
Updated: 2018-03-10
Packaged: 2019-03-28 22:58:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,362
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13913949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aedyn/pseuds/Aedyn
Summary: Watney faces a moment more challenging and terrifying than any he ever experienced on Mars.Another look at my Watney/Lewis pairing.





	Here At The End

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks again to my loyal Watney/Lewis people. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks for kudos, comments, and for reading!

Melissa glanced at the clock on her nightstand.  It was 9:33 p.m., and if she was right, then she didn’t have long.  She clenched the blanket tightly in her hands and gritted her teeth as the next contraction began.  She took slow, quick breaths, as she pushed through the pain. 

“Mark!” she said and nudged him with her elbow.  There was no response.  She slammed her elbow into his stomach, jolting him awake.

”I’m up.  I’m up.  What’s wrong?” he said sitting up in bed, rubbing his stomach and trying to catch his breath. 

”Sorry,” she said, then drew in a series of quick breaths.  “But I called your name and nudged you and got nothing.  You could sleep through a tornado.  We gotta go, babe!”

”Go?  Go where?” he asked with no small amount of confusion, still not completely awake.

She looked at him, an eyebrow arched and then grimaced in pain and began drawing in quick breaths again.

He was suddenly enlightened.  “Oh, ‘go.’ Gotcha!”  He leaped from the bed with unbridled excitement and immediately realized he had no idea what to do.  Glancing hurriedly around the room, he hoped he would see something that would jog his memory.  First, he went to the closet but then came back to bed, and then he just stared at her blankly.  “I... um...”

She smiled and shook her head.  “Get dressed, babe.  Then help me to the living room.  Then get my coat.  The packed bag is in the closet by the front door.”

”Right, good plan,” he said.  He rushed into the closet and grabbed a pair of jeans and fell over with a loud thud as he tried to too hurriedly put them on and tripped.

”You ok?” she asked.

”Fine.  All fine!” he replied.  "Nothing wounded but my pride... and my knee... maybe an elbow."

”Please, don’t kill yourself before we leave the house.  I know two young ladies who apparently really can’t wait to meet their dad,” she said and grimaced again, clenching her teeth.  “Oh, once again, I blame you for this.”

”And I gladly take the blame.  Because you and I are a team and taking the blame is one of the small contributions I can make,” he said as he stepped back into the room and slid on a brown sweater.  Crossing the room to her side of the bed, he took a seat on the edge.  He took her hand as she breathed through another contraction, and she was starting to sweat a bit.  When it passed, he leaned over and kissed her forehead.  “Come on, beautiful.  You ready to be a mom?”

She smiled as he brushed the red hair back from her face.  "Yeah.  Yeah, I am.”

“You’re going to be amazing, Melissa,” he said squeezing her hand tight.

“And they’re going to love their superhero dad,” she said, cupping his face and kissing him tenderly.  Then she grinned as she pressed her forehead to his.  “And you’re going to spoil them.  I see it in your mischievous eyes!”

“Well, just a bit,” he laughed.  He stood up and carefully helped her up from the bed and supported her arm as they walked into the living room.

”Will you be ok for a minute while I go start the car?”

She nodded, clutching her stomach with one hand, leaning against a wall with the other.

He ran into the garage, got the car started and heat cranked up.  It was early December and the weather in Denver was was, quite simply, cold.Once he'd recovered Lewis, he got her settled into the passenger side and tossed their suitcase in the back and climbed in the driver side.  As he was about to close the door he smacked his hand on the steering wheel.

”I forgot something.  Be right back!” He said and ran back into the house.

”Are you kidding me?” she shouted after him.  “Twins, Mark!”

Less than a minute later he was back in the driver seat with an unusually guilty look and nervous smile on his face.

Her eyes narrowed.  “What’d you forget, Mark?”

“Just left some lights on,” he said in what was clearly a lie.

”Uh huh,” she said suspiciously.

"We gotta go," he said.  "Babies won't deliver themselves."

She groaned again.  "If you don't hurry, these two just might."

“You two behave yourselves now,” he said, giving her stomach a gentle squeeze.  He chuckled and looked at her.  “I love you.”

She made a kissing sound.  “Love you too, but we have to go!”

***

“You’re going to have to leave, Dr. Watney,” one of the nurses said, gently taking him by the arm.

Melissa squeezed his hand, looking at him directly in the eyes.  “I don’t want you to go, but it’s ok.”

“It’ll be alright,” one of the nurses said, wiping her forehead with a wet rag.  “We have to get you into surgery and get those beautiful girls out into the world.”

“I… I can’t stay?” He asked.  “I won’t get in the way.”

“We’ll take good care of her,” the nurse at his side assured him.  “But you can’t be there.”

He pulled away from the nurse and leaned in close to Melissa.  Pulling her hand to his lips, he kissed it tenderly as he looked in her eyes.  She was pale, and strands of red hair stuck to her forehead.  “It’ll be alright.  I promise,” he said. 

She was trying to give him her brave face, but he was terrified beyond reason, and his hands were shaking.  She tightened her grip on his hand and smiled to stem the trembling.  

“It’s ok, Mark,” she said and pressed his hand to the side of her face.  “They’ll look after me.  Don’t be scared, baby.”

He swallowed the lump in his throat and forced a smile.  “I don’t want to go.”

”I know,” she whispered, exhaustion in her voice.  “It’s ok.”

He kisses her forehead as the nurses continued in a hustle around them, working to get her ready to be moved.

Suddenly her body began to shake and her grip on his hand slacked.

“What’s wrong?” He demanded, watching helplessly as a series of tremors wracked her body and she slipped out of consciousness.

“We have to go.  Her blood pressure’s up.  Get her into surgery now, we need these babies out, and I want oxygen ready when he get there,” the doctor said with finality.

The nurse grabbed Watney by the arm again, but he didn’t resist this time when she led him away and out of the room as they rushed Melissa out.

“Dr. Watney,” she said softly, “do you have someone you can call?  Some friends who can come sit with you?”

He nodded absently.  “Um… yeah, I do.”

“As soon as we can, we’ll update you,” she said.

“What… what was that?  That looked like a seizure.”

She nodded.  “Yeah, it did, but you should wait for the doctor to come talk to you.”

“But… I mean, why would she have a seizure?”

“Call your friends, Dr. Watney, the doctor will come see you as soon as he can.”

***

Watney sat in the waiting room, slumped over, faced buried in his hands.  The room was quiet and empty except for some late-night program on the tv in the corner playing at low volume.  Surely, there were few worse places in the world than a hospital waiting room.  The room was pleasantly warm, but he was freezing despite his leather jacket, and his heart was racing in his chest.  Even in all his time alone on Mars, he’d never felt a more real and palpable terror.  He tried to concentrate and focus on the throbbing in his head, but the only thing he kept coming back to was Melissa - how tightly she had held onto his hand when the doctor and nurses were telling him he had to let go.  Then that look on her face – her being the brave one, when he needed to there for her. He knew she was terrified, though it wasn’t fear for herself, but she’d been the strong one.  The babies weren’t even born yet and he felt like he was failing all three of them. 

Watney nearly jumped out of the chair when his cellphone buzzed in his pocket.  He answered it without even looking to see who it was; he already knew.  “Yeah?” he said, his voice tired and subdued.

“Hey, Mark, we just left Katie at the sitter’s and are on our way,” Johanssen said to him.  “What’s going on?”

“Uh, can you pass me over to Beck?” he asked, his voice breaking slightly.

“Sure,” she replied, concern evident even in that one word.

“Hey, Mark, we’ll be there soon.  What’s going on?”

He shook his head and rubbed his forehead nervously.  “I… I’m not sure.  Something about her blood pressure.  The doctor didn’t say much.  They… uh… they kicked me out of the delivery room and took her in for an emergency c-section.”

“Well, c-sections happen all the time and blood pressure issues with pregnancy aren’t uncommon.  I’m sure they’ve got it under control.  She’ll be fine,” Beck said, trying his best to sound reassuring.

“It didn’t fucking sound like it was under control,” Mark snapped back.  Then he forced himself to soften his tone.  “I mean… it was just all of the sudden.  I think...,” he sighed and wiped his eyes on with his sleeve, “I think she had a seizure.”

Beck was silent for a moment, but Watney could sense the change of tone in his voice in his next question.  “A seizure?”

“I think so.  Why?”

“Mark, when I get there, we’ll go talk to them together.  Ok?  We’ll find out what’s going on.  But if you want me to get there fast, I need to let you go so I can focus on driving.  Do you want me to put you back on with Beth?”

“Um, yeah, sure,” he said.

“Alright, man, I’ll see you soon,” he replied.

“Mark, it’s me.  What do you need us to do?”

He let out a heavy sigh and tried to think.  “Um, can you call her dad and let them know.  I just can’t right now.  They were going to head out first thing in the morning.  Just… just tell them, there are some complications, but I don’t really know what yet.  I already called my mom.  She and dad are on the way but probably won’t be here until the morning.”

“Of course,” she said gently.  “I’ll take care of them.”

A nurse entered the room and walked up to him.  He was oblivious to her, so she gently touched his shoulder.

“One sec, Beth, there’s a nurse here,” he said and looked up to her expectantly and anxiously.

“Dr. Watney, the doctor wanted me to come let you know that your little girls are fine.  They’re doing just great.  We’ll have them in the nursery soon, and you’ll be able to see them.”

He swallowed hard and nodded.  “That’s great.  Um, what about my… their mother?  My girlfriend?”  In that moment, he realized how much he hated that’s that what he had to refer to her as.  She was so much more than his girlfriend.   

“The doctor will come talk to you soon.  She’s still in surgery,” she said.

“Is she ok?” he asked, leaning forward in his chair.  “What’s wrong?”

“She’s stabilizing, but I don’t have any details for you I’m afraid,” she said apologetically.

“Right.  Thank you,” he said, his mouth suddenly very dry.

She nodded and left the room.

“Did you hear that?” he asked Beth.  “The twins… our girls are ok.”

“That’s good, Mark.  That’s really good.  You should try to focus on that for a minute,” she encouraged him.  “Just try to relax for a bit until we get there.  Chris is driving like a maniac, so I’m hoping we don’t get pulled over.  But he says since we’re famous and it’s an emergency it’ll be ok.”

Watney smiled a bit.  “Listen, I’ll see you guys when you get here.  Maybe I’ll walk around a bit.  Try to calm my nerves.”

“Ok, call if you need us.  See you soon,” she replied.  “Oh, sorry hold on, Chris is saying something.”  She waited for him to finish.  “Ok, Mark, he says you need to go ahead and go to the front desk and tell them you want to fill out the privacy paperwork so that they will talk him when he gets there.  You do have access to her medical info, right?”

“Um, yeah, we did all the forms for each other for medical records, power of attorney, and whatever else when we moved in together,” he said. 

“Ok, that’s good.  I know you’re tired, Mark, but you need to get that filled out.  They won’t talk to him without your written consent.”

“Yeah, I’ll take care of it,” he assured her.  He reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a small gray box, rolling it around in his hand.  “You know… I… um… I was planning to propose to her.  Stupid me, I almost left the house without the ring.”

Beth was quiet.

“When they brought the girls into the room, I was going to have the ring setting between them in the crib.  Sounds silly maybe.”

“No,” she said, trying to keep her composure for his sake.  “That sounds perfect.  Completely perfect.  You should definitely do that.” 

“Yeah?” He asked uncertainly. 

“Yeah, Mark, I think that’s the best idea you’ve ever had,” she said.  “She’s going to love it.  She’ll definitely say yes – as her best friend you can trust me on that.  Just don’t tell her I told you that.”

Watney smiled.  “She… she talked about us getting married?”

Beth smiled.  “Yeah, Mark.  She did.  She knows you’ve been afraid to ask her, but you don’t need to be.”

“Well, it’s settled then,” he said and let out a deep breath.  “Ok, let me go take care of that paperwork, and I’ll see you guys soon.”

“Bye, Mark.  We love you guys.”

“Love you, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed it, please know kudos are the only thing that keep me sane. 
> 
>  
> 
> 9/13/18: Been crazy busy with work and fighting writer’s block but still working on the next chapter. I work on a lot of stories at once and go back and forth between them, so sometimes I'll get a kick on one story and knock out several chapters at once and ignore the others a bit. Rest assured though I am working on all of my posted stories!


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